I Don't Know If You Can Hear Me
by frodoschick
Summary: A young girl who is mute has closed her heart to all outsiders. They do not understand, why should she try? Then, a prankster from way back when comes. Will he help her cold heart to feel again?
1. All About Me

I Don't Know If You Can Hear Me...

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Chapter One: My World, Silent

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Dedication: To those who cannot speak out

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BTW: This story is named after the first line of Esmerelda's song from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" I love that song!

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"Hello, Heather!" called a familiar voice from that weird pink house on the corner. I stopped, the dog pulling my arm from my socket and waved to the crazy old lady who lived there, who thought she was Marilyn Monroe. I smiled as I watched her sashaying across the porch, singing some old song. The rain clouds gathered, hearlding a storm, maybe a drizzle or two before the day was over. 

Max, my beagle, finally managed to pull me away from the spectacle and away to a set of ferns that he immediately revived himself on. I rolled my eyes, and groaned. The wind began to blow, bringing with it the smell of wet earth and smog. I pulled the leash and dragged Max back to my middle-class suburban house that was totally tacky. White and tan. Yuck.

I opened the front door, and promptly tripped over two sets of muddy boots, and a torn dog toy. Max instantly pounced on it and continued to rip it to shreds. I heard the rain begin outside, and instantly thanked my lucky stars that I was still not out there. I struggled to get the leash off, but he was having way too much fun with that darn toy to sit still, or even notice me. I gave up, and was about to let the dumb dog run all over the house with that leash still on him when Mom poked her head around the kitchen door, and gave me that look. I grinned cheekily, then grabbed Max's treat box. He stopped gnawing on that toy instantly. I pulled out a bone, and he sat.

I patted him on the head, and undid the leash. I then held the treat right above his head. He sat, still. My right hand made the motion for "Up." Max went up on his hind legs and with a little wobbling, stayed. I then slowly walked backwards, and he followed me, hopping forward. I smiled and tossed him the treat. He caught it then ran off to chew it in the living room.

"You taught that dog well." said Mom, smiling at me. I grinned and gave her thumbs up. Just then, the twin terrors of the city tore through the kitchen grabbed a plate of cookies and vanished into the living room.

"Those are for the Gardening Club meeting tonight!" Mom bellowed. "If either of you have eaten one, just one-!" she vanished into the living room as well. I shrugged, and grabbed a Diet Coke out of the fridge. I went upstairs and into my room, to do some homework. I pulled up some of my shades, to see the rain that was starting and shed my jacket on my chair. I switched on my Lava lamps, and pulled out my Geometry from under my bed, where I stashed it after classes.

Oh, I'm home-schooled. Mom thought that it would be an interesting challenge for her and us. That's my mom, the over-achiever of the family. As I started to work on finding the area of regular polygons, my computer beeped. I ignored it. Just my email. It beeped again. Seriously, that was going to get annoying. I got up and got on. I opened my latest, a folder from my magazine, Young Actors of America. I got it because it was funny. My eyes scanned the wording, and then I went back and read it more carefully.

_"Dear Heather Johnston,  
You have won our Grand Prize from out April issue! A week-long trip to New Zealand _(Technical junk)

I stared at the email, then hit the button my mother installed that was a recording of one of my brothers screaming, followed by, "Mom, this is Heather's automated scream"

Yeah, if you haven't guessed already I'm mute. Can't talk, can't hum, can't sing, and can't scream. Sign language is very useful for cursing out little brothers. But other than that, kind of annoying.

Mother's footsteps pounded on the stairs, and she entered my room like a tornado. I don't press that button much, owing to the fact that my brother sounds like someone getting stabbed with a knife, then having their intestines ripped out. Her panic stricken eyes chilled when she saw me on the computer.

"Heather, I thought that you were-" I held up a hand and silenced her. I pointed to my computer and clapped my hands in excitement. Mother walked over, read the email, and did what I couldn't. Screamed. Then she hugged me, and then she screamed again. Michel, the younger twin, santered into my room, and read the email. He nodded then said, "Cool," Mother started freaking out about all the packing that we would have to do, and all that. She went out of the room, muttering about plane tickets and schedules.

I guess we were on our way to New Zealand.

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Yeah, like I said before, I'm mute. And that's one reason why I'm homeschooled. Did the whole public school thing, but I didn't really fit in. Especially in the Drama department. I'm better off where I can be understood. Mom likes to do projects; I like to do them too. She and I have had many adventures in the past, visiting museums, art galleries, plays and musicals. Of course, I have to do a report on each, but it's a lot of fun. Who knows what Mom'll do with this New Zealand trip? 

BTW, I've got 4 brothers. Mom and Dad really wanted kids. John, the oldest, is married, with a kid of his own. I'm an aunt. The little guy's name is Jett, and he's pretty cute, only a year old, but so adorable! Roger, the second eldest, is in his first year of college. He met this girl and he's all goo-goo eyed. He's also your classic jock. Football player, quarterback, naturally. Grades, average. Then there are the twins. Honestly, someone had a sense of humor when they stuck them in our family. Timothy and Archie. The twins are younger than me, thank God, by four and a half years. But then again, they are at their worst now. They are the trouble-makers of the family. Mom's got her grey hair because of them, believe me!

Me, I'm your average teenager. Shoulder-length hair, grey eyes, painted nails, jeans. Sure, there's the mute thing, but I can read lips pretty good. Either that or signing. That's fun. I try to see how fast I can go without my brothers knowing what I'm saying. It's hilarious, especially when they get the first part, but not the second part, and they have such a look of confusion on them. Roger is the funniest with that look. Can't fool Mom, though. I swear, she has some sort of Mom detector, to see what I'm thinking. It's scary sometimes. I like to sing, well, mouth along with the singers, dance, draw, shop and get fancy for parties and stuff. I like to put make-up on, see who I can become. Depends on my mood, but sometimes I like to read. Also depends on the book.

Dad's an accountant. Boring job. He's not though. Surprise tickets to the circus, trips to Pike's Place, free ice-cream, he's an awesome dad. He'll even go shopping with me and Mom and be patient. He used to be a football player for the Miami Dolphins, but he injured his back, so he took up accounting, and got pretty good at it.

So, here we are, at a suburban house near Seattle, Washington, and I kinda like it. The fog you get used to, as well as the rain, and the occasional earth-quake. Everything stays the same.I guess you could say that I'm waiting for my life to start. Waiting for something to come along and interrupt my life. Something almost earth shattering. Maybe, someone to understand me. Someone my age, someone who will care. Someone who will be my friend. But I guess that's what dreams are for. And if I can't dream, there's no life in the world. Maybe, just maybe, this trip to New Zealand will shake things up enough.


	2. Hobbiton

Thank you for the one review. I hope this chapter will be more popular.

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Disclaimer: I own nothing LOTR, not even if I had a magic genie in a bottle!

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Dedication: To my best friend, with whom I can be whoever I want to be! Even a hyper freak!

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"Nothing exciting ever happens around here!" yelled Merry, throwing himself on an embankment next to a stream. Pippin dropped from the tree that he had been climbing, sat, thenstared at his cousin and best friend. 

"What do you mean?" asked Pippin, plucking a reed and chewing on the end, dipping his feet into the stream.

"Why can't we go on adventures like in Bilbo's stories? With lost treasure, battles, and danger? It's too safe here, I'm bored!" He pounded the ground, frustrated and furious. "The closest thing to an adventure was when Minto fell off the Buckleberry Ferry. He thought he was drowning and all he was doing was floundering in the shallows were some kids were playing." He stood up and paced. "Why doesn't anything ever exciting ever happen?"

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I studied the pamphlet on the stuff about the village of Hobbitton. I was in New Zealand, and my mom was so exciting about seeing this attraction because she had been a fan of the books when she had been in Junior High, and she wanted us to enjoy it. Tim and Archie were chasing each other through the streets of the fake town. Roger was staring at a jet that was flying overhead. I wandered down a lane while Mom was talking with Dad about what to do next. Did we want to go back to the hotel, or go out for dinner? (They served dinner at the hotel. Depended on what the night was, like Italian or Spanish.) 

The lane turned out to go into a small corpse of trees. I walked in the shade and flopped down next to a broad stream. It was so quiet, so peaceful. At last, I was away from my screaming brothers. I noticed a plant that I had never seen before. I took out a pair of scissors, and took a sampling of it's leaves and a blossom. Mom would probably know what it was. When I looked up again, a boy appeared. It was the weirdest thing. At first he wasn't there, then he was. He was sitting on the ground and looked annoyed about something. He blinked, then when he spotted me, he yelped with shock and shot backwards. I raised my eyebrows.

"Who are you? And...and where'd you come from? Where's Pippin?" He started to sound panicked. His head whipped around and he started to mumble something.

I stood up, crossed my arms and stared at him. Slowly, he stopped. He stood as well, and I noticed that he was kinda blurry around the edges, like a bad photograph. He was just about a few inches shorter than me, had reddish-brown-blond hair and he had a friendly look on his face.

"_Are you lost?_" I signed, concerned.

"Huh?" he said, staring at me as if I was completely crazy. I rolled my eyes. Another idiot who didn't understand the way I talked. I took out a pad of paper and a pen. "_Are you lost?_" I wrote, showing it to him.

"Oh, no. At least I don't think so. Where am I?"

Sarcastically, I wrote, "_Hobbiton._"

"I knew it! What are you doing here?"

"_That's my line. You appeared out of no-where. Who are you?_"

"Meriadoc Brandybuck. But my friends call me Merry." There was silence for a few seconds, and I started to laugh, silently. It must have looked like I was having a fit, because Meriadoc cried out.

"Are you alright?"

"_Of course I'm alright, 'Mary'. What a silly name! I was laughing!_"

"It's not M-A-R-Y. It's M-E-R-R-Y." he replied, looking very annoyed. I snorted.

"_Merry? O-kay. Are you here on vacation, or do you live here?_"

"I don't actually live here, Frodo does. I live in-"

"HEATHER!" I heard Archie scream. "WHERE ARE YOU? WE'RE LEAVIN'!" I took a whistle from around my neck and blew on it hard. Merry covered his ears as the piercing blast echoed through the grove. I turned to him and smiled. He appeared not to see me. I shrugged. I dashed off in the direction from whence I had come.

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"Merry? Merry? Merry, are you alright?" Pippin asked, shaking his cousin's shoulder. Merry jerked awake, he sat up, looking all around. 

"Huh? Wha-? Oh, it's you. Where'd that girl go?"

"Girl? What girl? There's no girl. It's almost twilight and we're both still here. We must have fallen asleep." Pippin said, slightly confused about his cousin's strange behavior.

"I guess it was just a dream..."Merry said, standing up.

"Well, tell me about it! Was she cute, what happened and-"

"Alright! Alright!" Merry shouted, throwing his hands up and admitting defeat. "She was a few inches taller than me, she had reddish hair, grey eyes, and she was wearing dark blue pants and a purple shirt. She carried a satchel that she kept a pad of paper and a pen in. She couldn't speak and at first tried to use hand-signals to communicate, but eventually she went to writing."

Pippin stared at him for a few seconds. "Okay then..."

"You asked!" he yelled, punching him on the shoulder and dashing away. Pippin chased after him.

They set off for Hobbiton at a run, eager to make it to their cousin's house for dinner.

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Our car pulled up to the hotel, just as it was getting dark. Archie and Timothy were the first ones out. They dashed into the hotel, where we lost sight of them.(Mom and Dad had given them their own room-keys as they were prone to vanish one minute and pop up the next.) 

Roger lumbered out of the car, and I followed. We walked across the parking lot in silence. When we reached the revolving door, he stopped.

"Heather, is everythin' ok? You're too quiet for my liking."

I quickly whipped out the signs for, "_I'm fine, just a little bit tired_."

"Mmm-hmm." he said, nodding sagely. I glared at him and stomped into the hotel. He made me so mad sometimes just because he thought he was so smart...argh! I entered the elevator after a woman with at least ten shopping bags and pressed the button for the sixth floor. The woman got off at the third floor and I had the elevator to myself. I listened to the music that was floating on the air in the elevator, and sighed. Who had that boy been? He was dressed like one of the tour guides, yet it seemed authentic on him. Plus...he was kinda cute. The doors "binged" open and I stepped into the hallway.

Archie and Tim were trying to perfect a midair somersaults in the hallway. Which resulted in their crashing into walls. I rolled my eyes again, as a man threw open the door to his room and yelled at my brothers. I just walked up to our room, then opened the door with the key. The twin terrors were inside before I knew it.

"HEY," yelled the man, coming up behind me. "GET BACK HERE YOU-"

"_Listen,"_ I signed. "_Leave them alone. They don't mean any harm._" He glared at me, then stomped off, totally weirded out. I rubbed my eyes and entered my room, totally tired. As I collasped on my bed, with my kid brothers bouncing off the walls around me, I thought again about the boy. Who was he? Well, I knew his name was Merry, but who names their kid after an emotion? Sure, I'd heard of people naming their kids after fruit, but...emotions?

Just then, Mom walked in, followed by Dad. They flung their day stuff on a table and started to freshen up for dinner. "We're eating in the downstairs resturant." Mom informed us.

"What's tonight?" asked Archie, barely managing to sit still for the second that it took for him to ask.

"Japanese!" said Mom excitedly. "I'm really looking forward to the sushi bar!" As we got ready for a sushi dinner, this afternoon's events seemed so far away. Who had that boy been? And when I thought of him, why did my heart thump?


End file.
